Autonomous vehicles are no longer sci-fi fantasies. Self-driving Ubers started picking up passengers in Pittsburgh last week while companies like Google, Ford, and more are road-testing autonomous vehicles across the country.

Car makers can't just take to the open road with their driverless vehicles, however. To make sure these cars won't run amok, the US Department of Transportation this week issued a new policy for automated vehicles.

"Automated vehicles have the potential to save thousands of lives, driving the single biggest leap in road safety that our country has ever taken," Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement.

The Federal Automated Vehicle Policy, which the government considers a "proactive approach," is split into four parts: vehicle performance guidance (a 15-point safety assessment); model state policy (delineates federal and state roles); current regulatory tools; and modern regulatory rules.

The vehicle guidance basically sets up rules for how the feds will determine if a self-driving car is safe, from pre-deployment design, development, and testing to commercial sale or operation on public roads.

A model state policy will allow states to issue licenses and registration, as usual, but will also make sure that cars can drive across state lines without issue and that car makers won't have to make "50 different versions [of cars] to meet individual state requirements."

DOT will also step in with self-driving cars if there is a safety issue, as it does now for traditional vehicles. "NHTSA has the authority to identify safety defects, allowing the Agency to recall vehicles or equipment that pose an unreasonable risk to safety even when there is no applicable Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS)."

The FMVSS—which dates back to 1966—assumes cars will be driven by human occupants. But advancements in technology means that won't always be the case. As such, existing safety standards make it nearly impossible for manufacturers to certify cars with automated features, necessitating the DOT's new guidelines.

This new policy, meanwhile, focuses primarily on highly automated vehicles—those that do not require a human behind the wheel—but also touches on lower levels, including the driver-assistance systems currently being deployed. "We are moving forward on the safe deployment of automated technologies because of the enormous promise they hold to address the overwhelming majority of crashes and save lives," NHTSA administrator Mark Rosekind said.

The Federal Automated Vehicle Policy is now open for public comment for 60 days. If approved, it will be updated annually.

"There has been a strong call from state and local governments, industry, safety experts, mobility advocates, and average Americans to establish a clear policy for the deployment of automated vehicles on our roads," Foxx said, promising to "continue the conversation" in the future.

David Strickland, spokesman and general counsel for the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets, this week gave USDOT and NHTSA the seal of approval, calling the new policy "an important step forward in establishing the basis of a national framework for the deployment of self-driving vehicles."

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Even President Obama chimed in, penning an op-ed for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

"Right now, too many people die on our roads – 35,200 last year alone – with 94 percent of those the result of human error or choice," he wrote. "Automated vehicles have the potential to save tens of thousands of lives each year. And right now, for too many senior citizens and Americans with disabilities, driving isn't an option. Automated vehicles could change their lives."

Obama also tipped the first White House Frontiers Conference on Oct. 13 in Pittsburgh, which will "explore the future of innovation in America and around the world, focusing on building our capacity in science, technology and innovation, as well as the new technologies, challenges and goals that will shape the next century."

About the Author

Stephanie joined PCMag in May 2012, moving to New York City from Frederick, Md., where she worked for four years as a multimedia reporter at the second-largest daily newspaper in Maryland. She interned at Baltimore magazine and graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (in the town of Indiana, in the state of Pennsylvania) with a degree in ... See Full Bio

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